Most (though not all) of us experience some sort of writer’s block or creative drought every once in a while. I’ve been working on one lately, and let me tell you—it’s not fun.
Gabi Pereira of Iggi & Gabi had been dealing with a creative drought recently, too. She asked for suggestions from her brilliant readers, and she got a lot of great ideas to end a creative drought
. Here are some of the great suggestions:
From Joel:
- “Sit down and try to connect with what [your] inner self is needing right now, before it is ready to start writing again.”
From Selena Wolff:
- Recognize the creative life cycle, and remain confident that the creative mindset will return.
From Kari Marie:
- Spend a few minutes a day thinking about what bothers you about your WIP, or reasons why you can’t move forward.
- Daily journal writing, even if it’s only a sentence or two.
From several people:
- Get out and live life!
- Read!
- Give yourself room to breathe: don’t judge yourself, allow yourself to not write, etc.
This will be part of next week’s Writing Wednesday!
What do you think? How do you beat a drought?
Photo credits: desert—Guilherme Jófili; hand writing—Melanie Cook
Great suggestions–especially about getting out and living life. I’ve forced myself to take a two-week break and I’m starting to get into it. Felt really strange the first couple of days. We’ve got family coming in this weekend, and I will be able to completely enjoy them.
I’m writing again, after nearly a year of drought (though I did work on non-fiction), and what got me going again was — writing friends.
I confessed I was stuck, but I sorta knew what the manuscript needed. With my friends’ help I pinpointed* the problem. Now I need to do a total rewrite, but the words are trickling out again.
*Pinpoint is irony, since I need to cut 2/3 of a trilogy to create a single novel. Kill your darlings!
Love all those suggestions……! I definitely agree with the ‘creative life cycle’ thing. Sometimes you just need a break, and it’s okay to give yourself one! You can use it to achieve other goals, like I did with my reading goal 🙂
You have a fabulous blog! I want to award you with one of my homemade awards: Powerful Woman Writer Award for all the hard work you do!
Go to http://astorybookworld.blogspot.com/p/awards.html and pick up your award.
~Deirdra
I like to look for inspiration anywhere and everywhere. It’s usually there, we just have to be open enought to see it. Therefore, I agree about getting out and living life. Truth is stranger than fiction.
All good ideas to beat a drought. My quick way of starting up again is to stand in a shower, or listen to a CD playing falling rain in the country. For me those sounds get all the creative juices falling, fresh inspiration, fresh ideas and more. Only problem is to remember all the good stuff and get it into the computer.